Incompetence - Sort of typical of President Jammeh

by PK Jarju

My attention has been drawn to an article published on the January 3 edition of The Point Newspaper in which President Yahya Abdul Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh, spoke at length about the Gambian civil service, opposition, Nepad, and the West.

In the story, Mr. Jammeh was quoted saying: "The amendment [Local Government Act] was made by the majority of the National Assembly. If you are telling me that National Assembly’s action is illegal then I wonder which authority in this country can make laws which anybody considers constitutional, legal or illegal? If I have to intervene to save Gambians I will do so and who ever does not like it, you can leave the country."

To be honest with you, I have to laugh out aloud after reading the above quotation as it exposes the President's ignorance to the 1997 constitution and his lack of respect to the Gambian people. The President in the above quotation was naive in failing to realize that Section 193 subsection (1) of the 1997 constitution is an entrenched clause, which cannot be amended by the National Assembly. This clause can only be changed through a referendum.

While the President may try to act smart by trying to highlight the importance of the National Assembly, he needs to know that the Gambian National Assembly is nothing but an APRC bureau. It is an unfit for purpose institution dominated by APRC men and women, who like the President, do not have the interest of the Gambian people at heart. They put the President's interest above the country. They have openly manifested their loyalty to the President by blindly and stupidly passing obnoxious laws such as the Local Government Amendment Act, which can be described as a killer bomb to our democracy.

The President got to know that most of these members of the National Assembly are unfit to be in that institution. They are lucky to be in that place simply because many electorates were intimidated to vote for them.

We have all seen the role played by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), police and the electoral commission in wrecking the chances of many opposition and Independent candidates in the National Assembly election.

Furthermore, despite being President of The Gambia, Jammeh got to know that he does not own the country. We are a country and not a village and we have a constitutional right to challenge any obnoxious law passed by the National Assembly.

And by saying that any Gambian who does not like what he is doing can leave the country, shows the contempt with which he holds the Gambian people. Of course, Jammeh is using his Gestapo [NIA] and soldiers to intimidate and torture his opponents there by giving them no choice but to flee the country. His motto is simple. You are either with me or I make life difficult for you. This is working well for him and as a result he has become so big headed and intoxicated with power. He treats us like small kids in kindergarten, swears at us billahi wallahi tallahi and threatens to bury us six-feet deep. This is total lunacy- period!

On Civil Servants

While, I am against lazy civil servants who get paid for doing nothing, I would began by saying that, the gross under performance of the Gambian civil service is encourage by the incompetence of President Yahya Jammeh and his regime.

There are many square pegs in round holes in the civil service as employment into the Gambian civil service is nowadays not determined by merits, but who you know. And as a result, many bright Gambians with good educational background and skills are being sidelined simply because they don't have any relationship with the top echelons. Be a son or daughter of a secretary of state, permanent secretary or an APRC yai compin (party woman patron) and you are guaranteed a job in our civil service upon completion of school.

The Gambian civil service is greatly undermined by favoritism, corruption, bribery, you name it. We have for many years seen many civil servants close to the President who are indicted for corruption being fired only to be reappointed to top positions of public trust. What about the President himself? He should count himself lucky that Gambians don't have a right to sack him. We would have fired him ages ago for incompetence, corruption, and worst of all, the mess which he has put our country into.

Opposition

The Gambian opposition has become less ferocious against President Jammeh simply because of his brutal and oppressive ways of governance. The Gambia is turned into a Nanny State. Jammeh is in control of everything from what we say, what we do and even where we go.

Gambians are arrested, tortured and even killed for no other reason than for opposing the regime. Government refuses to undertake certain development projects in communities that support the opposition. Civil servants suspected of being opposition sympathisers are made jobless. The political terrain is not level and how the hell does Jammeh expect Gambians to continue supporting the opposition?

Nepad

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) is failing due to the lack of support from corrupt presidents like Jammeh. They were too selfish and blind to see the noble objectives of the organisation, which include eradicating poverty; putting African countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development; stopping the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process and enhance its full and beneficial integration into the global economy and to accelerate the empowerment of women. Nepad was built on the principles of good governance, which it sees as a basic requirement for peace, security and sustainable political and socio-economic development.

Its desired outcomes were to enable Africa to become more effective in conflict prevention and the establishment of enduring peace on the continent; to enable Africa to adopt and implement principles of democracy and good political economic and corporate governance, and the protection of human rights becomes further entrenched in every African country as well as to help the continent to develop and implement effective poverty eradication programmes and accelerates the pace of achieving set African development goals, particularly human development to name but a few. Jammeh should be honest with the Gambian people.

There is nothing wrong with Nepad's principles. It is an organisation for Africa set up by patriotic Africans whose sole interest was to move Africa forward. Africa is sick and tired of corrupt and greedy leaders like Jammeh who turned their country's coffers into their personal accounts. Jammeh got to know that while other selfish and myopic Gambians are willing to blindly buy his cook and bull stories and ridiculous ideas, intelligent Gambians will always stand tall and tell him the unpleasant truth. For the Bible says, Truth shall set ye free and it will surely do.
Peace!
May Allah the most Gracious and Merciful shower His love and protection on our dear Mother Gambia.
For comments, write to papak196@yahoo.co.uk.